They’re at it again! Two years ago we reported how the "ageing Viking raider Peter Gyllenhammar and fairly youthful South African magnate David Marshall" had put forward a resolution to evict chairperson Shena Winning. Now controlling a combined stake of 46 per cent the dangerous duo have dismissed Swallowfield's chief executive Ian Mackinnon after 13 years as an employee.
The latest interim results are certainly a shocker even after allowing for last November’s trading update. The perennial problem facing Swallowfield (SWL) is that it serves much bigger retail customers who are constantly rationalising and reviewing their supply chains to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The killer fact was that in the latest half year, the top two customers accounted for just 24 per cent of sales against 47 per cent in the same period last year. Fortunately, the company has won business from significant new customers and a 37 per cent jump in exports to account for 35 per cent of sales is to be commended.
Broker N+1 Singer forecasts a fall in full-year adjusted pre-tax profits from £1.6m to £0.9m to produce EPS of 6.3p (2012: 11.2p) and a held dividend of 6.3p a share. For the following year, analysts expects profits of £1.9m and EPS of 13.2p.
SWALLOWFIELD (SWL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 98.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £11.1m | |
| TOUCH: | 95-102p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 128p | LOW: 99p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 6.4% | PE RATIO: | 90 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 114p | NET DEBT: | 3% | |
| Half-year to 5 Jan | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£000) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 31.5 | 701 | 4.70 | 2.20 |
| 2013 | 25.5 | -806 | -5.40 | 2.20 |
| % change | -19 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 1 May Payment: 24 May Aim: Personal products | ||||
